Chapter 2732 – True Beginning

“We won!”

“We really won!”

Muxin and the other Frost Heaven members were ecstatic when they saw their Guild’s score. Many members even screamed in joy as they reveled in this moment of victory.

What a close one. Shi Feng couldn’t help a sigh of relief.

In the end, Frost Heaven had beaten Miracle by only 30 points, which was just one hour’s worth of points for an Advanced Resource Node. If not for some of the other Guilds giving up on competing for Frost Heaven’s Resource Nodes, Miracle might’ve won the sixth seat instead.

Shi Feng had to admit that Miracle’s foundations were much stronger than many Super Guilds’.

Fortunately, everything went according to plan. Now that Frost Heaven has secured the sixth seat, we won’t have to worry about getting slots to enter the Upper Zone. We’ll also gain the privilege of garrisoning a city in a kingdom.

When Shi Feng saw the Guilds listed on the screen being reorganized based on their points and Frost Heaven officially ranking sixth, he began considering the next step of his plans.

In his previous life, the arrival of the first major update had brought about a complete change in God’s Domain’s power structure. Because of the NPC forces’ addition, the superpowers’ competitors were no longer limited to just the major powers. The NPC forces also became huge competitors.

These NPC forces were no ordinary organizations.

Before God’s Domain underwent its first major update, the NPC population in God’s Domain had been minuscule. However, after the major update, the NPC population would increase crazily.

Along with the increase in NPC population, the NPC forces normally only mentioned in books or conversations between NPCs would make their debut in the game. In fact, in a few more days, the various major powers would discover a frightening matter: despite how massive God’s Domain’s player population was, players made up only a small minority of God’s Domain’s inhabitants.

Yes. Despite the game’s current player population being over ten billion, players were only a minority in the world of God’s Domain.

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In the future, any random kingdom would easily have over two billion NPCs. The current player population could, at best, match the total NPC population in five or six kingdoms, which was roughly equivalent to the standard of one empire.

However, God’s Domain’s players were scattered across the various kingdoms and empires on the two main continents. There were also a large number of players in the many Otherworlds. Hence, in the future, the native powers would become the strongest forces in the various kingdoms and empires.

Moreover, after this major update, a severe problem would pop up-the disappearance of the protection mechanism for players. At this point, most players weren’t even aware of this protection mechanism’s existence. This was because this so-called protection mechanism only prevented NPCs from actively targeting players.

Hence, most players wouldn’t notice its existence and true purpose. They merely took its benefits for granted.

However, all of this would change in the world of God’s Domain in the future. So long as players left the city, they would no longer enjoy this protection mechanism. What did this mean?

Ordinary players would most likely have a difficult time imagining the consequences of such a change. However, this would be a disaster for the growing Guilds of God’s Domain.

This was because NPCs would become capable of taking the initiative to attack players. Highway robbery, launching ambushes when players were killing monsters, killing players because of a random mood swing...such incidents would become normal occurrences in the future.

In fact, Shi Feng himself had been robbed by Tier 4 NPCs on numerous occasions in his previous life.

Of course, powerful NPCs wouldn’t rob just anyone they saw. They would focus on stealing incredibly valuable items. Ordinary items would hardly arouse the interest of these powerful NPCs.

This change in the game was highly unfavorable for Shi Feng. After all, he carried too many valuable items. As he had the game’s rules protecting him before, he hadn’t worried about NPCs attacking him. Now that the rules had changed, he had no choice but to act carefully.

However, this still wasn’t the critical point of the major update. Instead, the fatal change caused by this update was in the management of Guild Towns and Cities.

During the early phases of the major update, most players still hadn’t noticed a problem with the NPC forces. However, once the local NPC forces finished conducting a thorough investigation on players, they would begin attacking Guild Towns. If a Guild Town lacked sufficient combatants to defend it, the territory might very well end up getting taken.

This was also one of the main reasons why many superpowers had disbanded after God’s Domain underwent its first major update in the past.

Meanwhile, the situation now was even worse than during Shi Feng’s previous life. In the past, when the first major update hit, the various superpowers already had Tier 4 players defending its territories. However, in this life, let alone Tier 4 players, the superpowers didn’t even have many Tier 3 players under their command. It would become a nightmare for the superpowers to defend their Guild Towns against the various NPC forces.

At this point, Shi Feng could already foresee many powers crumbling due to these changes. Compared to his previous life, the first major update’s aftermath in this life would definitely be a much more painful sight.

Once we get the Guild privileges, we’ll be able to garrison an NPC City and apply for a Guild Town Teleportation Permit. Then, Zero Wing could instantly become a giant in God’s Domain during the poaching wars. When Shi Feng thought about the imminent poaching wars, he couldn’t help feeling a little excited.

In the past, some first-rate Guilds had eventually grown into Super Guilds precisely because they managed to take advantage of the poaching wars.

In the early stages of God’s Domain, the superpowers had a massive advantage in numbers over the major powers. By the time players had reached Level 100, the major powers had mostly divided the available player population among themselves already. Hence, even some of the stronger Guilds among the major powers had found it incredibly difficult to grow further.

This was because after the average level of players reached Level 100, Guilds that wished to grow needed sufficient numbers. This was especially true when it came to Tier 3 players. Without sufficient Tier 3 players, effectively defending Guild Towns against NPC forces and monster armies would become impossible.

Meanwhile, most players mainly looked at the number of Guild Towns a Guild possessed and the prosperity of these towns when determining a Guild’s strength. This was also why the War God’s Temple had set the number of Guild Towns owned as a participation requirement for the reserve seat competition.

And if a Guild wished to maintain many Guild Towns simultaneously, a lot of manpower was necessary.

Now, although Zero Wing already possessed more members than most first-rate Guilds, it was still far from comparable to the various superpowers. Meanwhile, after the Great Collapse, the members of the fallen powers would become independent players. So long as Zero Wing took advantage of this opportunity, it could instantly become a bona fide superpower.

Moreover, Shi Feng was confident that once Zero Wing had a sufficient player base, the Guild could go up against Starlink, Saint’s Hand, and even the Five Great Super Guilds. At the very least, Zero Wing wouldn’t be forced to hole up in just a handful of Guild Towns and Cities in an incredibly passive state. In fact, with Zero Wing’s current state, it was only a matter of time before the Guild crumbled.

After all, what allowed the various superpowers to triumph over others were the talents they cultivated. With the resources the superpowers provided, these talents would slowly grow into powerhouses in the virtual gaming industry over time. If Zero Wing did not make sufficient preparations, with the Guild’s current scale and talent count, the Guild would be fortunate to keep itself alive in the future.

Meanwhile, along with the release of the official rankings, the spectating players and major powers erupted in an uproar.

“Crap! Frost Heaven actually got a seat!”

“Frost Heaven really is lucky. It actually found a dark horse like Zero Wing. With this, Frost Heaven really is going to rise to prominence.”

“Zero Wing, is it?” While the spectating players and major powers found Frost Heaven’s victory surprising, they didn’t feel particularly surprised by it, either. After all, the Tier 4 combatants Zero Wing possessed were simply too terrifying. They were not opponents Tier 3 players could hope to contend with.

The major powers paid more attention to Zero Wing than to Frost Heaven.

“Hmph! Frost Heaven can consider themselves lucky.” After looking at the Guild rankings, Cold Shadow glanced at Shi Feng’s information and sneered. “However, Zero Wing won’t be as lucky afterward!”

The nail that sticks out gets hammered!

This held especially true for a prominent Guild like Zero Wing.

The various superpowers were greatly limited in the forces they could bring out during this competition. This was especially true for the Five Great Super Guilds. After all, Tier 3 was the minimum standard for players to participate in the competition. However, there was no such restriction in the outside world.

The fact that Zero Wing had revealed two Tier 4 players in this competition had provoked the various superpowers’ intense envy.

Zero Wing was merely a pseudo-superpower, yet it had actually produced two Tier 4 players. If someone were to say that there wasn’t a secret behind this achievement, nobody would believe them.

After this competition, she could easily foresee that both ordinary powers and superpowers would hound Zero Wing until the Guild gave up its secret to completing the Tier 4 promotion. Otherwise, only death would await Zero Wing.

As the various superpowers began to plot against Zero Wing, Shi Feng remained wholly unaware of the matter.After the War God’s Temple announced the winners for the six reserve seats and awarded Zero Wing with a War God’s Temple Official Guild Certificate, Shi Feng promptly disbanded his team and bid goodbye to Muxin. He did not stay behind to take part in Frost Heaven’s celebration banquet but quietly left the Fire Dragon Empire instead.

This caused Seven Wonders and Hong Xinyuan to lament the missed opportunity to thank Shi Feng properly.

“Black Flame really is an unfathomable person.” After watching Shi Feng’s figure disappear into the distance, Seven Wonders turned to Muxin and said earnestly, “Muxin, you’ll be the First Vice Guild Leader from now on. You’ll be responsible for the matter regarding the Upper Zone slots, S-rank Nutrient Fluids, and subsequent affairs relating to our alliance with Zero Wing. I believe you can handle them well.”

“Guild Leader, please rest assured. I will definitely handle them well,” Muxin answered ecstatically.

Meanwhile, after Shi Feng left the War God’s Temple, he did not hurry to return to Zero Wing’s Residence to preside over the changing situation.

Instead, he made his way to the Twin Towers Kingdom, a dilapidated country on the brink of destruction—which would also become one of the most brilliant kingdoms in the future.

Twin Towers City, City Hall: “Sir, how may I be of service?” a Level 180, Tier 3 male administrator asked when he saw Shi Feng enter the building. “If you wish to purchase Land, I will have to apologize in advance. We are no longer selling Land to the public.”

“No, I’m not here to purchase Land,” Shi Feng said, shaking his head. He then took out the Official Guild Certificate from the War God’s Temple and said, “I am Zero Wing’s Guild Leader. My Guild wishes to officially garrison this city. May I know if that’s possible?”